"Mercy is not weakness; it is the arrogance of strength."
---
The air in Jump City hung thick with smoke and betrayal.
Rubble lined the waterfront where the final transmission from Brother Blood's stronghold had ended.
And through the haze, Deathstroke stood waiting.
The Hunter's Pride
Slade Wilson leaned against the broken hull of a cargo freighter, his armor cracked and sparking, his single eye gleaming through the mask.
"Didn't think you'd bring the kids." He rasped, voice cold.
"Or maybe you needed witnesses."
Nightwing stepped forward, staff ready. "You used one of our own. You used Tara."
Slade's eye flicked toward her. No remorse, no hesitation. "She wanted a family. I gave her a purpose."
Tara's voice shook. "You lied to me. You told me I'd matter."
He smiled, thin and cruel. "And you did. Until you didn't."
The words landed like blades. The Titans bristled, ready to strike.
But then the air changed.
Wind shifted, sound dulled and footsteps approached across the steel deck.
King stepped through the mist.
Every motion was deliberate, each step a calm note in a storm of rage. His eyes fixed on Slade, unblinking.
"You mistake manipulation for mentorship," King said quietly. "You molded a child's pain into a weapon. For that, I will take from you what you worship most."
Slade straightened, sword sliding free. "You can try."
The world blurred.
Slade lunged first. Blades flashing, gunfire erupting.
King didn't flinch. Bullets bent away. Blades met skin that might as well have been eternity itself.
King's movement was soundless, faster than thought.
A single parry shattered Slade's right hand.
A palm strike crushed the rifle's frame before the next shot could even echo along with his left hand.
Slade stumbled, shock flashing in his one eye. "What are you?!"
King's voice was calm. "The wall you cannot climb. The weight you cannot move."
Slade roared, trying to bite King.
King sidestepped, one movement. Fluid, effortless and caught him by the throat, lifting him effortlessly above the ground.
"Every battle you fought," King said softly, "was against men seeking victory. I am not victory. I am consequence."
He threw Slade across the deck. Metal screamed, the ship's frame bending from the force and his spine shattered.
When the dust cleared, Deathstroke lay broken not dead, not bleeding, but spent. His body refused to rise, cannot rise.
His mask cracked open. For the first time in years, his expression showed something raw. Despair mixed with fear.
Tara's Choice
King turned to Tara. "He's yours," He said. "Your pain. Your decision."
She froze. The team waited. Even Raven looked uncertain.
Tara's eyes burned with tears. She stepped closer, her power thrumming faintly around her hands.
The ground under Slade's body trembled, rocks hovering, ready to strike.
He looked up, smirking weakly. "Go on. You won't do it."
Her voice broke. "You don't get to decide who I am anymore!!!"
The stones fell harmlessly to the ground.
King's expression softened just slightly. "Mercy is not a weakness." He said. "It is the proof you survived."
Slade slumped, defeated. The Titans restrained him, but he didn't resist not that he could.
Something deeper than his bodily function had been taken from him. His certainty, his control.
The Dawn After
By sunrise, the docks were quiet. Police sirens wailed faintly in the distance.
The Titans stood watching as an ambulance escorted by police officers took Slade into custody.
Nightwing exhaled. "You just ended one of the world's most dangerous man without killing him."
King looked at the rising sun. "I ended nothing. I reminded him that some walls can't be scaled because they don't move for hate."
Tara wiped her eyes. "He'll come back someday, won't he?"
"Unlikely. Unless the Lazarus pits can restore bone powder." King said. "But even if he does, he'll find the world doesn't bend the way it used to."
Starfire smiled softly. "And even if he does return, he will find us together."
King nodded once. "Then the world has already won."
The team stood in silence for a while
the morning air clean, the bay reflecting light like glass.
For the first time since Tara joined there was peace.
Read 28 chapters ahead on P.A.T.R.E.O.N
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